People think of Melbourne as a Greek city, but not Sydney. At least they didn't until Greece won the Euro 2004 soccer championship and suddenly everyone who'd ever eaten a souvlaki was painting a cross on their face and dancing in the pre-dawn streets. With Athens about to host the Olympics, Sydney's Greek community - and it is substantial - has been launched into the spotlight and the distinctive pale blue and white flags are fluttering in streets from Marrickville to Brighton-le-Sands. For Sydneysiders everywhere, this means one thing: it's time to eat some great Greek food. But where? And what?

To find out, we went on a guided tour of Greek Sydney with famed Greek chef, Peter Conistis, of Omega Restaurant. This is his pick of the places to visit, and the best things to buy when you're there. Kali oreksi! (good appetite).

Harris Codsinis has run this deli for 20 years and his father ran it for 30 years before him. The floor groans with a colourful and tempting assortment of produce, making it the perfect place to start your tour of Hellenic cuisine.

If you want to make a mezze spread, Lamia has everything you need, starting with a selection of salamis, Greek cheeses and some particularly fine looking salt cod (which, oddly, comes from Norway). There are some 10 to 15 different types of olives. Conistis goes for the Angel kalamatas, plump and black, or the Pelion, a distinctive light brown on the outside with a blush of purple in the centre. "They have the sweetness of the black olive, but the texture of the green."

Sometimes, even Conistis cheats and buys tins of Palirria brand dolmades, baked giant beans and okra in tomato sauce. "Everyone loves what they grew up with, but the younger generation of Greeks don't want to make it," he explains.

At Lamia you will find less well-known treats such as jars of candied green olives cooked in clove syrup, which Conistis sometimes serves as spoon sweets with coffee. He is especially fond of the jars of fondant, in either vanilla or mastic (a flavour drawn from a resin, which he describes as an earthy, musky vanilla). Drop a spoonful in cold water, stir and eat it from the glass. His favourite things to buy in this shop are big bags of chickpeas, beans and pumpkin seeds.

"This is definitely one of my favourite places to go in Marrickville," says Conistis, as we head across the road to this cheap, simple Greek restaurant, run by the Giannakelos family for 24 years. It's open until the wee hours and Conistis sometimes brings his kitchen staff here after work to feast on such traditional dishes as the signature barbecued lamb on the spit, served by the kilo, or kokoretsi (sausages made from lamb offal, when available).

"One of the best things to have here are the slow-roasted lamb heads, which I really love," he says, wide-eyed with enthusiasm.

If you're not feeling that adventurous, rest assured they also do a mean moussaka, excellent dips and plump slabs of teeth-squeaking grilled haloumi cheese. Service is gruff, decor is kitsch and the food is cheap, plentiful and very good. "It's very Greek. It's like a taverna in Athens."

The smell is heavenly. Dimokritos "Jim" Stoullis learnt to bake in Greece and has been selling his wares at this landmark bakery since 1977. Conistis comes here for the traditional large, round, Greek sourdough bread, called karveli, and the pies, spinach or spinach and cheese. His favourite is the almond shortbread, kourambiedes. "I actually think [these are] the best you can get anywhere." The secret ingredients are orange essence and plenty of slivered almonds. "They're like the ones your mother used to make and every Greek wants the ones their mother used to make!"

Across the road from the bakery, this butcher supplements the usual Australian meat selection with Cypriot sausages, pork marinated in red wine for a week and Greek sausages - fresh pork "country-style" loukaniko and smoked chabie. Both are flavoured with chilli, leeks and orange rind. Conistis cuts the long rings into slices, fries or barbecues them and serves them with lemon - or stuffs them in a boned leg of lamb.

For a real Greek treat, try the kokoretsi, made on the premises for the past 23 years.

"You can get really, really good souvlaki, marinated or not marinated," says Conistis. "The Greeks buy them in a box [of 50]." Orders for baby goats are also taken.

This has been a Greek deli for 42 years; a year ago, a coffee shop was added, serving good, strong Greek coffee - but the accompanying sweets are not Greek (friands and petite caramels sell better, apparently). You can get savoury Greek fare, however, including spanakopita (spinach and feta pie) and pastitso (Greek lasagne) and the deli stocks such Greek essentials as feta, olives, kaseri (a soft cheese) and house-made red wine vinegar.

The biggest Greek deli and wine store in Sydney, with the widest selection of produce. As with Lamia, it stocks imported and Australian foods, from legumes to cheese, salamis and tinned snacks. Harry Ipermachou and his son, Con, have been running it since 1987, and Con's aunt makes the sheftalias (pork patties served with lemon, or put in pitta with salad) and koupes (a bit like Lebanese kibbeh, also good with lemon). Harry's wife makes all the taramasalata, tsatsiki, eggplant dips and the like.

Conistis is fond of them all and also likes to stock up on cheese. His advice is to stick to those from Crete and northern Greece, where the best grazing land is and the best feta is made. He recommends Dodoni brand, made from sheep's milk, for a creamy feta, or Epirus, made from a mixture of sheeps' and goats' milk, if you want something with more bite. For hard cheeses, he recommends graviera (a bit like gruyere, but less nutty, more salty) and kefalotiri (more like pecorino, but with more bite).

The store stocks several brands of haloumi cheese, some of it in 2kg tubs. Peter says a Greek family would go through one of these a week. For the rest of us, he recommends the smaller serves of Pittas brand.

Conistis is very big on Greek olive oil. He's on the board of the International Olive Oil Council and recommends Minos brand extra virgin, at $27.50 for four litres. His favourite brand of coffee is Bravo, though Loumidis is also good.

We walk over to the wine section, past the retsina. "No," says Conistis firmly as we walk past. "No."

He says it's hard to get good Greek wine in Australia, except in restaurants that import their own, but there are a few to choose from. He especially likes the Samos muscat, or nectar, "a cross between a dessert wine and a semi-fortified wine," that he uses in his restaurant.

He recommends Metaxa brandy, though it is pricey: a boxed bottle of the private reserve is $150, though cheaper versions are available.

And ouzo? "It depends on people's taste, but in my opinion, Tsantali is the best." Bear in mind that, although he cooks with the stuff - Omega imports eight types, including saffron-infused and fig-infused - he never drinks ouzo. Con does, and says the top-seller is Ouzo Mini.

This is also the place to pick up 10kg tubs of washing powder, religious icons, barbecues and spits, "which every good Greek family must have".

Trianon Cakes

289 Homer Street, Earlwood. Tel: 9558 3347. Open daily, 7.30am-6pm.

The specialty at this neighbouring little bakery is the olive bread - eliopsomo - with olives, onion, dill, shallots and olive oil. Or try the haloumi bread. Conistis also recommends the Greek biscuits and the tray sweets, such as baklava and galaktoboureko, with filo pastry, custard and syrup. Non-Greeks might come in to get a piece of each, but Conistis says that's not how the Greeks do it. "They come in and get trays of them for the family."

Nick's Cake Shop

313 Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands.

Tel: 9597 7080. Open daily, 9am-7pm.

Conistis says many Greeks regard Nick's as the best cake shop in the city. He likes it, but wouldn't go quite that far. It has an array of non-Greek bakery items and good tray sweets, especially the baklava that is made with an assortment of nuts. Conistis also favours the "puff delights", Turkish delight wrapped in puff pastry and covered in icing sugar.

This is Conistis's favourite take-away joint in Sydney. It looks much like any other souvlaki bar, but the long queues late into the night suggest there's something else going on here.

"It's the quality of the meat, the size of the pitta bread. It's become an institution with the Greek community," he says, as he orders us each a double lamb souvlaki to eat on the beach.

Servings are big - "once again, the Greek thing: nothing small" - and he orders ours with lettuce, tomato and tsatsiki. Lemon juice is sprinkled on the meat and there is an excellent spice mix of pepper, savoury and oregano. It's nothing like the soggy, greasy affairs sold in many souvlaki bars around town. Now I understand what the fuss is about.

Peter Conistis's own restaurant (the successor to Eleni's) serves his modern take on traditional Greek food. The creamy moussaka of fried eggplant, seared scallops and taramasalata is justly famous.